Israelis have elected an extremist government that will not lead to peace, and
it is not clear whether its society will change that reality. This, at least, is
the view from Damascus articulated by Syrian President Bashar Assad in a recent
interview with Kai Diekmann, editor-in-chief of the German daily
Bild.
In
the world according to Assad, the “social fabric” in the Arab world is “always
peaceful,” and occupation – first the British and French, and now Israeli – is
why there is no peace in the region; Iran is “not seeking any nuclear weapons”;
and it is misplaced for the West to worry about one woman sentenced to death for
adultery in Iran, while “you forget about half a million victims in
Iraq.”
RELATED:WikiLeaks: Syria believes Israel killed top Assad aide WikiLeaks: 'Syria would drop Iran for peace with Israel' Here are excerpts from Assad’s interview:
Mr. President, why is it
so difficult for this region since hundreds and hundreds of years to find peace?
Very simply, in one word, because of the occupation. We have been living in very
difficult circumstances during the centuries; but if you look at the social
fabric, it is always peaceful; you do not have civil wars, except for Lebanon
for the last three decades. Look at Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and
this entire region where we did not have any internal conflict.
All the
conflicts were because of the occupations: the British, the French and now the
Israeli.
That is why we do not have peace. We see desperation that leads
to extremism. That is why we do not have the peace.
What about Israel’s
right to exist, do you accept that?
When you negotiate with the party, this
means that you recognize his right to have a state, because when you talk about
peace, this means that you are going to have peace with another state. But you
do not recognize somebody before the peace; you do not recognize that right
before having your right first, because they occupy your land.
We are
ready and we have a clear vision about how to achieve peace. But we need a
partner; we do not have this partner so far. The Israeli society has elected an
extremist government that will not lead it to peace. So, will the society change
this picture or reality or not? We do not know.
Everyone talks about the
two-state-solution. What do you personally want for the Palestinians?
We want
the Palestinians to have their state, to have their land and to have sovereignty
over this land; not only a land without sovereignty. That is what they
need.
Do you really believe that one day Israel will really share its
capital Jerusalem with another state, a Palestinian state?
According to what we
hear, no. They said publicly this is an eternal capital to Israel and they
talked about all Jerusalem, while the Arabs are talking about Eastern Jerusalem
which should be the Palestinian capital.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad
wants to wipe Israel off the world’s map. What do you tell him?
Did he do
anything in that regard? He did not. So, We deal with actions, not with
words.
We are realistic.
Still, the world is quite concerned about
Iran’s nuclear program. Even the Saudis expressed their concern, according to
the WikiLeaks files. What do you make out of Iran’s nuclear ambitions?
Iran is a
very important country in the region whether we like it or not. We have to deal
with it. Iran is not seeking any nuclear weapons according to our knowledge. So,
dealing with Iran is about monitoring what they are doing and they accept that.
That is how we have to look at the problem.
We are looking for policies,
mechanisms.
Mr. President, you are the leader of your country since 10
years, how do you see Syria’s image in the world?
Is it the West or the world,
because the problem is in the West, not in the world. The problem with the West
is that they think they are the world, they forget about the rest of the world.
The West cannot just keep following the ostrich policy where they put their head
in the ground and they do not want to see what is happening in the world. In the
world Syria’s image is very good; we have very good relations and we never had
any problem with the rest of the world: Southern America, Eastern Asia, Africa
and whatever. With the West, it was distorted. It is a little bit better but not
that much better.
The whole world had high hopes in Barack Obama to bring
East and West closer together, and actually Barack Obama did reach out to the
Muslim world, for example in his Cairo address. How does the Arab world view
Obama today?
He certainly wants to do something.
In his speech in Cairo
he raised the hope for peace in this region, but when you raise the hope without
results, you will have the opposite, you will have more desperation. So, as
president, so far he seems to be genuine in his efforts, but at the same time we
are looking at the results, and not only at the will and intentions.
From
the European position, we got the impression that Turkey is moving away from the
West, moving away from NATO and the US and moving toward the Muslim world. Do
you think that this is right, or what is Turkey’s position today?
I think the
West is moving away from Turkey. But I think it is important for Turkey to play
this role it has been playing for the last three years in this region. That has
created a lot of balance because you cannot imagine this turbulent region,
especially after 11th of September, invading Afghanistan, invading Iraq and
having bad relation between Syria and Turkey, Turkey and Iran and Turkey and
other countries and so on for others, you cannot imagine the
repercussions.
Many people in Germany now talk about the case of a woman
in Iran that was sentenced to death through stoning for betraying her
husband. This cannot be the picture of the Muslim world that you really
want.
But we could also ask the question: Killing half a million people
in Iraq – is this the picture the Western world wants for itself? The same in
Afghanistan. This is the other way of looking at the situation.
So,
having a matter which you do not agree with does not reflect the whole country,
the whole culture. Even in Syria you may have something you may disagree with,
but still it is not the full picture of my country.
You cannot say that
we are worried about one woman while you forget about half a million victims in
Iraq.